A Revelation

I hate chores. The ones that we have to do every day as mothers, washing, ironing, all of it. If there’s one room that never (and I mean never) looks clean is the kitchen. No matter how hard I try it will stay looking clean and tidy for all of about 10 mins and that’s when I keep the children out and don’t make a cup of tea or coffee for at least that long. It’s the room I spend most of my time in yet I can’t keep it the way I want. Things always get in the way.

My toast making facilities

Well, on Saturday I spent all afternoon cleaning my kitchen. Yep, that’s right… all afternoon. When I was finished I was quite pleased with myself and decided to have a cup of tea. The funny thing is that now I’ve started to change my routine, instead of placing the tea bag in it’s bag holder and leaving it there I put it straight in the bin. When I’d finished with my spoon I put it straight in the dishwasher. At dinner time I made dinner and resigned myself to the fact that there was no way the kitchen would stay tidy but again my routine changed. While waiting for the kids fish fingers to cook I washed the pans and things and dried them and put them away! The kids ate their dinner and their plates could go straight into the dishwasher, just like my spoon earlier. When I looked at my kitchen once dinner was all finished with I was surprised to find it in the same state I’d left it. My counter tops were still sparkling, there were no dirty plates left on the side and no pots waiting to be washed. OMG!


I can't believe I'm raving about 
a tidy kitchen!
Onto Sunday morning and I woke up and entered my kitchen and smiled. It was still tidy. I could make breakfast without having to reach over dirty plates or move things out of the way so I could butter some toast. It was all so easy. Who knew?! Here’s the thing, I thought it would be so hard to keep it looking nice but actually it isn’t. All day yesterday I told the kids to put their dirty things into the dishwasher, I washed pans when I had the opportunity and I kept my tea making ventures tidy.

This morning I walked into my kitchen with a huge smile on my face because I knew what I’d be walking into. It made me realise something… I’m growing up! I’ve taken that step and realised that with just a little work every now and again I can keep that clean, sparkling kitchen. I know this is quite a boring thing to rave about but being a SAHM sometimes it’s the littlest things that have the biggest impact on us. :)

Time for a Breakthrough

Potty training is one of those milestones that is both wonderful and gut wrenching at the same time. My youngest is has just turned 4 and he’s been going to the toilet, in the day, unaided for a while now. However night time hasn’t been such a great transition, I’ve been through tons of washing gel, I’ve changed bedding at 1 or 2am countless times and I’ve felt like this phase was never going to end. It’s such a slog to wake up at 2am with a crying child, having to calm them down, stay awake and change bedding all at the same time. 


Big boy bed
My baby's bed.

With my eldest the transition seemed really easy, admittedly the mother-in-law did most of the work while I was on my honeymoon. We went away for a week and by the time we got back he was sorted. He didn’t even struggle very much with going to the toilet at night, it just sort of ‘clicked’. Like I said, the youngest has been struggling and I did wonder if he would still be like this when he started school full time. I had my magic moment last week when I woke up at about 2am and heard the little one getting out of bed. 

I laid there hoping that the crying wouldn’t start and listened intently. I heard him get out of bed and walk onto the landing, he stopped and I sighed and flung the covers back. Just as I was about to get off the bed I heard his footsteps again so I waited. Listening and holding my breath I heard him go to the toilet, flush, wash his hands and then walk back into his bedroom. I couldn’t believe it! My baby had finally cracked it. It’s been about a week and I haven’t had to change his bedding in the middle of the night. I’m so proud of him but at the same time I’m a little sad, my baby is growing up.

I won’t be sorry to say goodbye to those 2am bed changing routines but it does make me realise that my baby isn’t a baby anymore. In September he’ll go to school full time and then it’s just a short time before we’ll be fighting and arguing over when he can go out on his own (I have this with my eldest now). It’s nice to see those break throughs but sometimes I do wish time would slow down.